011111157* 


A  DECLARATION 

Of  the  causes  lohicli  impel  the  Slate  of  Texas  io  secede  from 


the  Federal  Union. 


The  Government  of  the  United  States,  Ijy  certain  Joint 
Resolutions,  bearing  date  on  the  first  day  of  Search,  in  the  year 
A.  D.,  1845,  proposed  to  the  Republic  of  Texas,  then  a  frct\ 
sovereign  and  independent  nation,  the  annexation  of  the  latter 
to  the  former,  as  one  of  the  co-equal  States  thereof. 

The  people  of  Texas,  by  Deimties  in  Convention  assembled, 
on  the  fourth  day  of  July  of  the  same  year,  assented  to  and 
accepted  said  proposals,  and  formed  a  constitution  for  the  pro- 
posed State,  upon  which,  on  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  December, 
of  the  same  year,  said  State  was  formally  received  into  the  con- 
federated Union. 

Texas  abandoned  her  separate  national  existence  and  C'insenttd 
to  become  que  pf  the  confederated  States,  to  promote  her 
welfare,  insure  domestic  tranquility  and  secure  more  substan- 
tially the  blessings  of  liberty  and  peace  to  her  people.  She  was 
received  into  the  confederacy,  with  her  own  constitution,  under 
the  guarantees  of  tlie  Federal  Constitution  and  the  compact  of 
annexation,  that  she  should  enjoy  these  blessings.  She  was  re- 
ceived as  a  commonwealth  holding,  maintaining  and  protecting 
the  institution  known  as  negro  slavery — the  servitude  of  the  Af- 
rican to  the  white  race  within  her  limits — a  relation  that  had 
existed  from  the  first  settlement  of  hei  wilderness  by  the  white 
race,  and  which  her  people  intended  should  continue  to  exist  in 
a"  1  future  time,     llcr  institutions  and  geographical  iK'sition  cs- 


tabliahed  the  strongest  ties  between  her  and  the  other  slavehohl- 
ing  States  of  the  Confederacy.  Those  ties  have  been  strengtli- 
ened  by  the  assoeiation.  But  Avhat  has  been  the  course  ot  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  people  and  author- 
ities of  the  non-shivehohling  States,  since  our  connection  with 
them  ? 

The  controlling  majoiity  of  the  Federal  Government,  under 
various  pretences  and  disguises,  has  so  administered  the  same  as 
to  exclude  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  States,  unless  under  odi- 
ous and  unconstitutional  restrictions,  from  all  the  immense  ter- 
ritory owned  in  common  by  all  the  States,  on  the  Pacilic  ocean, 
lor  the  avo.ved  purpose  of  acquiring  sufficient  power  in  the  com- 
mon government,  to  use  it  as  a  means  of  destroying  the  institu- 
tions of  Texas  and  her  sister  slaveholding  States. 

]jy  the  disloyalty  of  the  Northern  States  and  their  citizens, 
and  the  imbecility  of  the  Federal  Government,  infamous  combi- 
nations of  incendiaries  and  outlaws  have  been  permitted  in  those 
States  and  the  common  territory  of  Kansas,  to  trample  upon  the 
Federal  laws,  to  war  upon  the  lives  and  pro])erty  of  Southern 
citizens  in  that  territory,  and,  finally,  by  violence  and  mob  law, 
to  usurp  the  possession  of  the  same,  as  exclusively  the  property 
of  the  Northern  States. 

The  federal  government,  while  but  partially  under  the  control 
of  these  our  unnatural  and  sectional  enemies,  has,  for  years,  al- 
most entirely  failed  to  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  the  peo- 
]de  of  Texas  against  tlie  Indian  savages  on  our  borders;  and,  more 
recently,  against  the  m  jrd.,'rous  forays  of  banditti  from  the  neigh- 
boruig  territory  of  Mexico  ;  and  when  our  State  Government  has 
expended  lai-ge  amounts  for  such  puri)oses,  the  Federal  goverji- 
ment  has  refused  re-imbursemtnt  therefor — thus  rendering  our 
condition  more  insecure  and  harrassing  than  it  was  during  the 
existence  of  the  Republic  of  Texas. 

These  and  other  wrongs  we  have  patiently  borne,  in  the  vain 
hope  that  a  i-etin-ning  sense  of  justice  end  humanity  would  in- 
duce a  different  coiuse  of  administration. 

When  we  advert  to  the  course  of  individual  non-slaveholding 
States  and  that  of  a  majority  of  their  citizens,  our  grievances  as- 
sume far  greater  magnitude. 

The  States  of  Maine,  Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut, 
Pthode  Island,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio. 
Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Iowa,  by  solemn  Legislative  enact- 
mentrf,  have  deliberately,  directly  or  indirectly,  violated  the  third 
clause  of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  laws  passed  in  pursuance  thereof;  thereby  an- 


nulling  amitorial  provLs'Mii  of  the  cornpict,  Jesig-n?>l  by  It; 
fVaraers  to  perpetuate  amity  l)et\veen  tlu  members  of  tlie  con- 
federacy, and  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  slavehohling  States  in 
their  domestic  instibutious— a  provision  founded  in  justice  an  I 
wisdom,  and  without  the  enforcement  of  which  the  compact  fail^^ 
to  accomplish  the  object  of  its  creation.  Some  of  those  States 
have  imposed  high  fines  and  degrading  penalties  upon  any  of 
their  citizens  or  officers  who  may  carry  out  in  good  faith  that 
jJTOvision  of  the  compact,  or  the  federal  laws  enacted  in  accord- 
ance therewith. 

In  all  of  the  non-slaveholding  States,  in  violation  of  that  good 
faith  and  comity  which  should  exist  even  between  entirely  dis- 
tinct nations,  the  people  have  formed  themselves  into  a  great 
sectional  party,  now  strong  enough  in  numbers  to  control  the  af- 
fairs of  each  of  those  States,  based  upon  the  unnatural  feelin'^-of 
hostility  to  these  Southern  States  and  their  beneficent  and  pa- 
triarchal system  of  African  slavery — proclaiming  the  debasinf 
doctrine  of  the  equality  of  all  men,  irrespective  of  race  or  color — 
a  doctrine  at  war  with  nature,  in  opposition  to  the  experience  of 
mankind,  and  in  violation  of  the  plainest  revelations  of  the  divine 
law.  They  demand  the  abolition  of  negro  slavery  throughout 
the  confederacy — the  recognition  of  political  equality  between 
the  white  and  negro  races — and  avow  their  determination  to 
])ress  on  their  crusade  against  us,  so  long  as  a  negro  slave  re- 
iiiains  in  these  States. 

For  years  past  this  abolition  organization  has  been  aclivolv 
sowing  the  seeds  of  discord  through  the  Union,  and  has  rendered 
the  Federal  Congress  the  arena  for  spreading  fire-brands  rnd  ha- 
tred l>etween  the  slavehohling  and  non-slaveholding  States. 

By  consolidating  their  strength,  they  have  placed  the  slave- 
h(.ilding  States  in  a  hopeless  minority  in  the  Federal  Congress 
and  rendered  representation  of  no  avail  in  protecting  Sofithern 
lights  against  their  exactions  and  encroachments. 

They  have  proclaimed,  and  at  the  ballot  box  sustained,  the  rev- 
olutionary doctrine  that  there  is  a  "  higher  law"  than  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  our  Federal  Union,  and  virtually,  that  they 
will  disregard  their  oaths  and  trample  U})on  our  rights. 

They  have,  for  years  past,  wicouraged  and  sustained  lawle.'s  or- 
ganizations to  steal  our  slaves  and  prevent  their  re-capture,  and 
have  repeatedly  murdered  Southern  citizens  while  lawfully  seek- 
ing their  rendition. 

They  have  invaded  Southern  soil  and  murdered  unof- 
fending citizens,  and  through  the  press,  their  leading  men  and 
a  fanatical  pulpit,  have    b-  stowed    jiraise  upon   the  actors  and 


4 

af^sassins  in  these  crimes — \\\nle  the  Govevnors  of  several  of  thoir 
h^tates  have  refused  to  deliver  parties  implicated  and  indicted  for 
]i;irticipatioii  iu  such  offences,  upon  the  legal  demands  of  the 
>S rates  aggrieved. 

They  have,  through  the  mails  and  hired  emmissaries,  sent 
seditious  pamjdilets  and  papers  amongst  us  to  stir  up  servile  in- 
s  irrectioii  and  bring  blood  and  carnage  to  our  firesides. 

They  have  sent  hired  emissaries  among  us  to  burn  our  towns 
and  distribute  arms    and  poison  to  oar  slaves,  for  the  same  pur- 

They  have  impoverished  the  slaveholding  States  by  iineqnal 
rind  partial  legislation,  thereby  enriching  themselves  by  draining 
viir  substance.    • 

They  have  refused  to  vote  appropriations  for  protecting  Texas- 
against  ruthless  savages,  fur  the  sole  reason  that  she  is  a  slave- 
liulding  State. 

And,  finally,  by  tlie  combined  sectional  vote  of  the  seventeen 
iiou-slaveholding  States,  they  have  elected  as  President  and  Vicc- 
Tresident  of  the  whole  Contl-deracy,  two  men  whose  chief  claims 
1'.  such  high  positions,  are  their  approval  of  these  long  contin- 
ued wrongs,  and  their  pledges  to  continue  them  to  the  final  con- 
Mimmation  of  these  schemes  for  the  ruin  of  the  slavehold- 
ing States. 

In  viev.-  of  these  and  many  other  facts,  it  is  meet  that  our 
own"  views  shoitld  be  distinctly  proclaimed. 

We  hold,  as  undeniabli,^  truths,  that  the  governments  of  the  vari- 
<  ■ITS  States,  and  of  the  Confederacy  itself,  were  established  ex- 
clusively by  the  white  race,  for  themselves  and  their  posterity  ;. 
tliat  the  African  race  had  no  agency  in  their  establishment  ;  that 
they  "were  rightfully  held  and  regarded  as  an  inferior  and  de- 
];endai>t  race,  and  in  that  condition  only  could  their  existence  in 
this  country  be  rendered  beneficial  or  tolerable  : 

That,  in  this  free  govornraent,  all  luhite  men  are,  and  of  riilil 
ought  to  be,  entitled  to  cfjal  civil  and  political  rigids  ;  that  the 
servitude  of  the  African  race,  as  existing  in  these  States,  is  mu- 
•tually  beneficial  to  both  bond  jyid  free,  and  is  abundantly  au- 
thorised and  justified  by  the  experience  of  mankind,  and  the 
revealed  will  of  the  Almighty  Creator,  as  recognized  by  ail 
Christian  nations;  while  the  destruction  of  the  existing  relations 
b-^iwecn  the  two  races,  as  advocated  by  our  sectional  enemies, 
would  bring  inevitable  calamities  upon  both,  and  desolation 
upon  the  fifteen  slaveholding  States. 

By  the  secession  of  six  of  the  slaveholding  States,  and  the 
certainty  that  others  will  speedily   do  likevris*,  Texas  has  no  al- 


ternative  Imt  to  remain  in  irsulated  connection  with  the  Xuith, 
()!•  unite  her  destinies  with  tlie  South. 

For  these  and  other  reasons — solmmly  asserting  that  the  Fed- 
cnil  Constitution  has  been  viohitcd  and  virtually  abrogated  hv 
the  several  States  named  ;  seeing  that  the  Federal  Government 
is  now  passing  under  the  control  of  our  sectional  enemies,  to  l)e 
diverted  from  the  exalted  objects  vf  its  creation,  to  those  of  op- 
pression and  wrong  ;  and  realising  that  onr  State  can  no  longer 
l')ok  for  protection,  but  to  God  and  her  own  sons  : — We,  the  Del- 
egates if  the  people  of  Texas,  in  Convention  assembled,  have 
jiassed  An  Ordinance  dissolving  all  iK)litical  connection  with  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  the  people 
thereof^ — and  confidently  appeal  to  the  intelligence  and  patriot- 
ism of  the  freemen  of  Texas  to  ratify  the  same  at  the  ballot-bux, 
on  the  23rd  day  of  the  present  month. 

Adopted  in 'Convention,  on  the  second  day  of  February,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixlv-ono,  and 
of  the  independence  of  Texas  the  twenty-fiftli. 

0.  M.  ROBERTS,  Fresvhnf, 
LOHN  LITTLETON, 


EDWLN  WALLER, 

L.  A.  ABERCROMBIE. 

W.  A.  ALLEN, 

JAMES  M.  ANDERSON", 

T.  S.  ANDERSON, 

JAMES  R.  ARMSTRONG, 

RICHARD  L.  ASKEW,. 

W.  S.  J.  ADA1\IS, 

WM.  C.  BATTE, 

S.  W.  BEASLEY, 

JOHN  BOX, 

H.  NEWTON  DURDITT, 

JAMES  M.  BURROUGHS, 

JOHN  I.  BURTON, 

S.  E.  BLACK, 

W.  T.  BLYTHE, 

AMZI  BRADSHAW, 

R.  WEAKLEY  BRAHAN, 

A.  S.  BROADDUS, 

JNO.  HENRY  BROWN, 

ROBERT  C.  CAMPBELL, 

LEWIS  F.  CASEY, 

AVM.  CHAMBERS, 

T.  J.  CHAMBERS,      ' 


M.  F.  LOCKE, 
OLIYER  LOFTIN, 
THOS.  S.  LUBBOCK, 
P.  N.  LUCKETT. 
liENRY  A.  MALTBY, 
JBSSE  MARSHALL, 
JAMES  M.  MAXEY, 
LEWIS  W.  MOORE, 
WM.  MeCRAVEN, 
WM.   McINTOSH, 
GILCHRIST   McKAY, 
THOMAS  M.  McCRAW. 
WM.  GOODLOE  MILLER, 
ALBERT  N.   MILLS, 
THOMAS  MOOUE, 
THOS.  C.  MOORE, 
CHARLES  de  MONTEL, 
B.  F.  MOSS, 
JOHN  MULLER, 
THOS.  J.  NASli; 
A.  NAUENDORF,     ■ 
T.  C.  NEEL, 
ALLISON  NELSON, 


JOHN  GREEN  CHAMBERS,JAMES  F.  NEWSOM, 


6 


N.  B.  CHARLTON, 
GEO.  W.  CHILTON, 
ISHAM  CHISUM, 
WM.  CLARK,  Jr., 
J.  A.  CLAYTON, 


W.  M.  NEYLAND, 
K.  B.  NICHOLS, 
A.  J.  NICHOLSON, 
K,  P.   NICHOLSON, 
JAMES  M.  NORRIS, 


CHARLES  L.  CLEYELAND,ALFRED  T.  OBENCHAIN, 
A.  G.  CLOPTON,  VY.  B.  OCHILTREE, 


RICHARD  COKE, 

W.  S.  OLDHAM, 

JAMES  E.  COOK, 

R.  J.  PALMER, 

JON  W  DANCY, 

AY.  M.  PAYNE, 

A.  H.  DAYIDSON,  ' 

W.  K.  PAYNE, 

C.  DEEN, 

WILLIAM  M.  PECK, 

THOS.  J.  DEYINE, 

W.  R.  POAO, 

THOMAS  a.  DAVBNPORT,ALEXANDER  POPE, 

JAS.  J.  DIAMOND,  ~"    "  " 

AYM.  W.  DIAMOND, 

J  NO.  DONELSON, 

JOSEPH  H.  DUNHAM, 

EDWARD  DOUGHERTY, 

H.  H.  EDWARDS, 

ELBERT  EARLY, 

JOHN  N.  FALL, 

DRURY  FIELD, 

,10HN  H.  FEENEY, 

(iEORGE  FLOURNOY, 

SPENCER  FORD, 

JOHN  S.  FORD, 

THOMAS  C.  FROST, 

AMOS  P.  GALLOWAY^ 

CHARLES  GANAHL, 

P.OBERT  S.  GOULD, 

ROBERT  GRAHAM. 

MALCOM  D.  GRAHAM, 

PETER  W.  GRAY, 

J  NO.  A.  GREEN, 

JOHN  GREGG, 

WM.  P.  HARDEMAN, 

JOHN  R.  HAYES, 


DAYID  Y.  PORTIS, 

D.  M.   PRENDERGAST. 
WALTER  F.  PRESTON, 
F.  P.  PRICE, 
A.  T.  RAINEY, 
JOHN  H.  REAGAN, 
C.  RECTOR, 
P.  G.  RHO)[E, 

E.  S.  C.  RORFRTSON, 
J.  C.  ROBERTSON, 
J.  B.  ROBERTSON, 
WILLIAM  P.  ROGERS, 
JAMES  H.  ROGERS, 
EDWARD  M.  ROSS, 
JNC).  RUGELEY, 
H.  R,  RUNNELS, 
E.  B.  SCARBOROUGH, 
WM.  T.  SCOTT, 
WILLIAM  READ  SCURRY, 
JAMES  E.  SBEPARD, 
SAM  S.  SMITH, 
GIDEON  SMITH, 
JOHN  D.  STELL, 
JOHN  G.  STEWAEIT, 


I'HILEMON    T.    HERBERT,CHARLES  STEWART, 


A.  Vv^  0.   HICKS, 
THOS.  B.  J.  HILL, 
ALFRED  M.  HOBBY", 
JOS.  L.   HOGG, 
J.  J.  HOLT, 


F.  S.  STOCKDALE, 
^\M.  H.  STEWART, 
PLEASANT   TAYLOR, 
B.  F.  TERRY, 
NATHANIEL  TERRY, 


JAMES  HOOKER, 
EDWARD  R.  HORD, 
RUSSELL  HOWARD, 
A.  CLARK  HOYL, 
THOS.  P.  HUGHES, 
J.  W.  HUTCHESON, 
JNO.  IRELAND, 
THOS.  J.  JENNINGS, 
r.  JOlilES, 
W.  C.  KELLY, 
T.  KOESTER, 
0.  M.  LESUEUR, 
F.  W.  LATHAM, 
TRYOR  LEA, 
JAMES  S.  LESTER, 

R.  T.  Brownrigg,  Secrctai 
Wm.  Dunn  Sciioolfield,  . 
r.  w.  lunday, 


E.  THOMASON, 
JAMES  G.  THOMPSON, 
W.  S.   TODD, 
JAMES  WAL\\ORTn, 
R.  H.  WARD. 
WM.   WARREN, 
J  AS.  C.  WAT  KINS, 
JOHN  A.  WHARTON, 
JOSEPH  P.  WIER, 
JNO.  A,  WILCOX, 
A.  P.  WILEY, 
liEN  WILLIAMS, 
JASON  WILSON, 
PHILIP  A.  WORK. 


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